Read the passage and answer the questions that follow on the basis of the…
2024
Read the passage and answer the questions that follow on the basis of the information provided in the passage.
Primitive man was probably more concerned with fire as a source of warmth and as a means of cooking food than as a source of light. Before he discovered less laborious ways of making fire, he had to preserve it, and whenever he went on a journey he carried a firebrand with him. His discovery that the firebrand, from which the torch may very well have developed, could be used for illumination was probably incidental to the primary purpose of preserving a flame.Lamps, too, probably developed by accident. Early man may have had his first conception of a lamp while watching a twig or fibre burning in the molten fat dropped from a roasting carcass. All he had to do was to fashion a vessel to contain fat and float a lighted reed in it. Such lamps, which are made of hollowed stones or sea shells, have persisted in identical from up to quite recent times.
By 'primary' the author means _____.
- A.
primitive
- B.
fundamental
- C.
elemental
- D.
essential
Attempted by 6 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept: In a vocabulary-in-context question, a word's meaning is fixed not by its dictionary sense but by the logic of the surrounding sentence -- a contrast, a cause-effect link, or a restatement in that sentence tells you which shade of meaning applies here.
Application: The passage sets up a contrast: using the firebrand for illumination was merely “incidental”, while preserving the flame was the “primary purpose” -- the main, chief purpose, not a side effect. So “primary” here is not about age, basic composition, or an underlying foundation -- it marks which of the two purposes was the main one. Among the given options, “essential” is the closest available fit for that main, non-incidental purpose.
Contrast with each option:
primitive -- describes something ancient or undeveloped (an age/stage); the sentence isn't contrasting old vs new.
elemental -- describes something in its most basic, unmixed, natural form (a kind of thing); the sentence isn't describing a raw substance.
fundamental -- can loosely suggest importance, but its core sense is an underlying base or foundation something else is built on (a root principle); the sentence isn't describing preserving the flame as a foundation for something else, just as the main purpose against a merely incidental one.
essential -- correct: among the options, it best captures a main purpose that isn't merely incidental -- the exact contrast this sentence draws.